General Search Engine Marketing Issues Forum

The discussion on negative keywords reminded me of a experience I had last year that is probably more common than I think.

I sell hand made wigits, and one of my wigit makers produced tiny samples that could be sent to prospective buyers. "If you would like to receive a free sample, please email us" appeared on the web page where I sell this wigit. I was getting two or three requests a month.

Then all of a sudden within two days I was deluged with requests for free samples from Canada! By corresponding with one of the free sample requesters I discovered that she was a member of a chat group whose sole purpose in life was accumulating free samples of whatever from wherever.

When I had difficulty tracking down this chat site, my correspondent gave me a link (it was part of another site having nothing to do with samples). She then sweetly mentioned that a major cosmetics manufacturer had encountered this same problem last year and in gratitude for her "help", had sent her a $10 coupon for more free cosmetics, and that I should do the same!

To me this is a form of blackmail. We are a small business and the free samples were intended for prospective buyers who might hesitate to buy the full size of a modestly expensive item. Needless to say, I removed the "free sample" option immediately (and she didn't get a $10 coupon, either). Since I believe they found my page by searching either for "free" or "free sample," I eliminated all references to anything free on the site.

The moral seems to be: Some people will go to any length to get a finger nail sized freebee. So be careful what you offer for free!

In my experience, even asking people to cough up a 37 cent stamp or SASE dissuades a lot of the "freebies freaks". Go figure -- I suppose there's bragging rights to be had by getting the most useless junk for the least amount of money.

Yes, the obvious solution is to charge something for the freebee so that it's no longer truly "free." It seems to me a rather sad commentary on Western society that so many people would waste their time and energy collecting worthless free items for what--bragging rights?

Moderator, this may be a new topic, but I'll interject it here anyway: my 10 months experience with offering free samples not only proved to me that I should have charged something for them, but, not one person to whom I sent a free sample ever bought the product! Nevertheless, I had a number of other people who didn't request free samples buy the product. Conclusion: Giving away free samples is useless as a marketing tool?!

One of my clients offers a free widget planning booklet for requestors in his geographic area. The site says the offer is meant to introduce the firm to local businesses and inviduals. We're had a few cross-country requests, and have sent out the books, even though they cost us a few dollars. However, we told some competitors who filled out a form that we just didn't think it appropriate for us to send them our material.

So far we appreciate gaining the contact info -- which we tell them might be used by us to send them informational materials. No real problems and we're thinking of what our next free publication can be.

I'm a member of a few boards that has a freebie section. While I do particpate in it, I only get the freebie's that I want try with the possibility of purchasing. I'll click on the link and then once I see what they are giving away I'll then decide if I would ever use it or not.